


What Lengthened Hours

by WildandWhirling



Category: Romeo & Juliette - Toho Stage, Romeo et Juliette - Presgurvic
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, M/M, Pining, Post-Apocalypse, Pre-Canon, romeo is a good cousin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-18 21:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20319415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildandWhirling/pseuds/WildandWhirling
Summary: Benvolio's missing. Romeo knows where to find him.





	What Lengthened Hours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [paint_me_a_revolution](https://archiveofourown.org/users/paint_me_a_revolution/gifts).

> Happy (belated) birthday to paint_me_a_revolution, who requested "Romeo and Benvolio being good cousins." This is my first time dipping into RetJ in ANY form, but I was really happy to try it on for size anyway, especially since I REALLY fell in love with this production. 
> 
> Based off of the Toho production, which gave us an absolutely wonderful post-apocalyptic setting to play with.

He couldn’t find Benvolio, and the entire house was in a panic. His mother had already sent a group of four (enough to tangle with any Capulets who decided to get curious) to the wastelands that separated Verona from Mantua, a long desert stretch that was studded with bits and pieces of glass shards and rubber left to burn beneath the sun.

It wasn’t unusual for one of the Montague boys to be gone. Every time his mother looked in the mirror from her vanity, with its three legs and faded, cracked emerald, and pulled out a gray hair from among the light brown, she would ruffle Romeo and Benvolio’s hair and say that it was all because of them.

No, what was unusual was that _ Benvolio _ was the one missing. 

Usually, it was Romeo, with his long pacing into the night, where he found himself searching for _ something _ , something _ different _ . Something to pick up the pace of his life, so that it would stop feeling like he was wading in a sea of gray, wandering among the labyrinth of crumbling apartments and former grocery stores that made up the Montague territory, looking at all the little signs of life that still lurked in the rubble, a reminder of how many people had lived and loved and _ died _ years before he was born. What had they lived for? What did anyone live for? 

(What if he lived his entire life like this? What if he only saw gray forever?) 

(Friar Lawrence was the only one who talked about it, wistfully, with a sad expression on his face as he talked of a world that engulfed itself in fire, usually in-between handling his herbs and frantically rushing to his computer to type in some new bit of data.)

Those times, Benvolio was the one to run after him, clinging onto him until he agreed to take them both home, usually giving his cousin a piggy-back ride because he’d exhausted himself on the way over. 

The cousins had been, since they were born, nigh inseparable. His mother would look after Benvolio during his mother’s long sickness, leaving them in separate playpens to attend to some task around the house, only to return and find Benvolio in Romeo’s crib, hugging him like he was a stuffed animal, a little smile on both of their faces, and she’d never had it in her to move them. 

Together, along with Mercutio, they’d mapped out the entire city together, making a playground for themselves among the dusty and derelict, the sea of windowless skyscrapers where they could look out on the rest of the city, the construction site that had never been finished but that made a fantastic mud pit when the rain fell, the narrow, graffiti-covered alleyways that they’d played tag in, later playing a much more high stakes game of tag with Tybalt later on, but never getting caught, always staying one step ahead of the Prince of Cats. 

Which was why Romeo knew that Benvolio was nowhere near the wastelands, just like he hadn’t been kidnapped by Capulets. 

Instead, he found them at one of their old haunts. It had been a meeting room of some sort, with one long table flanked by a long series of black leather chairs that still stood long after the windows and most of the outward facade of the building had been destroyed. 

Not that Benvolio was sitting on any one of them, his cousin instead laying on the table, looking up at where the plaster had cracked, tossing a cloth ball up and down, not breaking eye contact with it even as the sound of Romeo’s footsteps grew louder and louder. 

“Hey, Romeo,” he said, just as the ball fell back into his hand. 

“Benvolio, our whole family’s been looking for you.”   
  
Toss, rise...“Has it really been that long?” And it fell back into his hand again. 

Then, his face went blank, like it usually did when he was trying to process several different things at once, then falling in panic, his eyes growing wider as he nearly fell over himself to get up. “Mercutio isn’t with you, is he?” 

“Mercutio--No, he isn’t.”   
  
Romeo sat down on the table, though only half of his body really settled on it, his legs dangling off the side. “Want to talk about it?”   
  
The thing with Benvolio: The only time that he didn’t have a slightly confused look on his face was when he was trying to put it on. “Talk about what?

“Why you don’t want to talk to Mercutio. What’s the matter? Did something happen between the two of you?”   
  
“Not like that. It was just. While we were out last Wednesday night, while you were gone, he, uh…” Benvolio scratched the back of his head, “He kind of kissed me.”

“Merc,” Romeo groaned, “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him and tell him that just because he thinks the rest of Verona is fair game, he can’t just kiss my cousin without his permission. I’ll smooth this over, don’t worry.” 

Benvolio bolted up, reaching out an arm. “No, Romeo! I, uh...I wasn’t sure. If I did want it or not. I think I might have liked it, I don’t know.” He frowned, “It’s all so confusing. But now, when I see him, I get this weird feeling in my chest, you know?” 

Oh, yes, Romeo knew that one _ very _ well. 

“You think you like him?”   
  
“I don’t know. I mean, I did like kissing him, I think. And I get this weird tingly feeling whenever he holds my hand. And on one hand, I kind of want to run, but on the other hand, I kind of want to be with him all the time, and I feel _ bad _ when I’m not.” 

“So, you decided that the best way to get around it was to run away?”   
  
“Hey, I took a page out of your book, cuz.”

Romeo playfully punched his shoulder, and then sobered. “You should talk to him.” 

“What if he was just being Mercutio? You know how he is.”

“What if he wasn’t? Come on, Benvolio, it’s no good living our lives if we can’t have at least some _ hope _. Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn’t, but at least he’ll know.” 

Benvolio avoided his eyes, but nodded his head anyway, finally sliding off the desk. “Alright, alright, I’ll _ talk _ to him.” He slung an arm across Romeo’s waist, which was really as high as he could reach when the two of them were standing side by side. “Now, can you talk to your mom for me?”   
  
Romeo patted him. “You’re on your own there.”

* * *

Romeo’s mother was actually very lenient, all things considered, only smothering Benvolio with face strokes and “We were so worried”s and “Where were you”s that were rapidly accompanied by crushing hugs. 

“Ben!” Mercutio said, from where he’d been sitting with Romeo’s parents. “What happened? They told me you were lost and--”   
  
Benvolio glanced up at Romeo, who nodded at him and then, taking a deep breath, gently pried himself away from Romeo’s mother, grabbing Mercutio by the arm and leading him to one of the rooms that jutted out from the hallway, the two of them passing through the faded green curtain that separated the rooms from each other. 

Romeo’s parents looked at him with twin expressions of surprise. 

He pretended to be surprised, shrugging. “I think they had something to discuss, I don’t know.” 

About an hour later, as he went to go outside for one of his moonlit walks, he passed outside the darkened alcove, only to be met with silence. Curious, he brushed aside the curtain, only to be met with his cousin, hands entangled in Mercutio’s hair to pull him deeper into a kiss. Looking up to see Romeo there, he paused just long enough to give him a thumbs up before getting right back into it, and Romeo could only smile and shake his head as he walked out, alone, into the night.

His day would come too.


End file.
